Right Reason, Fallen Reason

“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:3) These words from Jesus’ high priestly prayer light up the darkened sky, the night Jesus enters, to face betrayal, arrest and death. These luminous words tell us that knowledge of God and of His Son is the supreme blessing, life eternal; and the acts of that night tell us that such knowledge is desperately far from us. How should we understand these two truths: that human reason can know God; and that reason fails to do so? It seems that humanity has been created to know God “by nature,” yet God’s very presence among us does not meet with rational faith but rather denial and rejection. What kind of reason is this? And what kind of nature? This lecture examines both.